Jury

Shoair Mavlian (UK) is Director of Photoworks. She is responsible for the strategic vision and artistic direction of the organisation including exhibitions, publishing, digital content and learning & engagement. Recent Photoworks projects include ‘Photoworks Festival: Propositions for Alternative Narratives’ (2020), ‘Ursula Schulz-Dornburg, Zone Grise/The Land In between’ (MEP, Paris 2019) and ‘Brighton Photo Biennial: A New Europe’ (2018). From 2011-2018 Mavlian was Assistant Curator, Photography and International Art at Tate Modern, London, where she curated the major exhibitions ‘Don McCullin’ (2019) ‘Shape of Light: 100 Years of Photography and Abstract Art’ (2018), ‘The Radical Eye: Modernist Photography from the Sir Elton John Collection’ (2016), ‘Conflict, Time, Photography’ (2014), ‘A Chronicle of Interventions’ (2014) and ‘Harry Callahan’ (2013). While at Tate Modern she helped build the photography collection and curated collection displays enjoyed by over 5 million visitors per year. Mavlian has a background in fine art photography practice and the history of photography with a focus on conflict and memory, Central and Latin American photography and emerging contemporary practice. In 2018 she was named one of Apollo Magazine’s 40 under 40 Europe – Thinkers.

Sawako Fukai (JP) is an independent editor and art project coordinator based in Tokyo. After her career working as a director of G/P gallery and artbeat publishers for ten years, she has been dedicating herself in working for international projects in relation with contemporary photography and art/design. She lived 5 years in Europe including London and Amsterdam. She also works as a translator for publications including Japanese edition of ‘Photography Is Magic’ by Charlotte Cotton (Originally published by Aperture, US in 2015) . Now she runs her own editorial agency SW_ working with clients including Shiseido, SIRI SIRI, Momoko Kudo Architects, IMA magazine, OUTSET Nederland, University of Pennsylvania and Tokyo Art Book Fair. She is also a producer of Tokyo Photographic Research, a Tokyo-based artist collective’s project on contemporary photography.

Karin Laansoo (EE) is the Director of the Estonian Contemporary Art Development Center (ECADC) and Artistic Director of Kai Art Center.  Since its inception in 2012, she has been responsible for the vision and programming for ECADC. After 7 years as a nomadic organization, ECADC opened Kai Art Center in a renovated submarine factory in Northern Tallinn in 2019 and now has its headquarters there. Laansoo oversees international residencies, exhibitions, and educational programs at Kai while providing support to the local art scene by managing ongoing grants and professional development programs at ECADC. Recent Kai exhibitions include ‘Leviathan: the Paljassaare Chapter’ by Shezad Dawood, ‘Radical Light’ by Anne Senstad, ‘The Instruments of Life’ by Patricia Piccinini, and ‘Love Song Sing Along (Once Again with Feeling!)’ by Kris Lemsalu and Kyp Malone. From 2006 to 2013 Laansoo worked in New York City as Gallery Manager of a nonprofit art gallery and Director of an international artist residency. She published an award-winning book ‘22+ Young Estonian Artists’ in 2005 and produced Piibe Kolka’s documentary film ‘Look a Little More. Katja Novitskova’s Art in Six Episodes‘ in 2018.

Isabella van Marle (NL) is the curator of Foto Tallinn 2021. Van Marle is a creative consultant and curator based in Amsterdam. She is the co-founder of Pictures for Purpose, an initiative that started life in 2020 in the shape of a fundraising print by international artists. Foundation Pictures for Purpose aims to raise funds and awareness for charities through the medium of photography. Isabella has worked as the fair curator of Unseen and has served on the jury of several photography festivals and events.